Help identifying a bicycle: Bridgestone 450

[slartibartfast]

I have a Bridgestone bicycle that I would like to find more information
about. It is labeled as a "450 Racing Series" at the top of the seat
tube. It has a "Bridgestone Cro-Moly Tubing" sticker near the bottom of
the seat tube and a "Coca Cola" sticker right under that. the only other
markings are a hand painted serial # on the BB shell.

I cant seem to find any references to a 450 line of bridgestone bicycles
on the web, only RB-1, RB-2, etc.... Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jason

 

[Lars Lehtonen]

According to slartibartfast <[email protected]>:

>I cant seem to find any references to a 450 line of bridgestone bicycles
>on the web, only RB-1, RB-2, etc.... Any help would be appreciated.

Early '80s Bridgestones have spacey names like "Spica." Mid 80's road
bikes had numbers. There was a child's-size ten-speed called the "90."
The cheapest adult road bike was the "100," with stem shifting and no
bottle braze-ons. I had a blue one. The numbers and quality went up
from there.

I've owned both a 400 and a 500, which at one point was the cutoff
between 27 1/4 wheels and 700c wheels. My 500 has Shimano 600, my 400
had Suntour Cyclone. Most Bridgestones of the era had metallic paint.
I've seen silver, gray, blue, and pink.

The RB nomenclature started ~89, I think. The iBob list would have
definitive answers for you:

http://www.bikelist.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-bob

---
Lars Lehtonen